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Labor History Seminar: Angela Vergara, California State University

Labor History Seminar

Friday, March 25, 2011

3:00 pm to 5:00 pm

“Land, Labor and Production in the Chilean Wine Industry”Angela Vergara, California State University, Los Angeles

Small farmers constituted the big majority of wine producers in Chile, but they contributed little to Chile’s wine production. They typically owned or rented less than 12 acres of non-irrigated land, cultivated local types of vine stocks, used vines that were usually too old and sick and had limited access to technical assistance, fertilizers or credit. My paper explores the social and labor history of wine production in twentieth-century Chile through the experience and struggles of small-scale wine producers. In doing so, this work sheds light on the tensions of Chilean rural society: unequal land distribution, lack of credit and modernization and labor exploitation.